Ode to Billy Joe

Another sleepy, dusty Delta day

I was out chopping cotton and my sister was bailing hay

And at dinnertime, we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

And mama hollered out the backdoor, y'all remember to wipe your feet

And then she said, I got some news this morning from Choctaw Ridge

Today, Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahassee Bridge

And papa said to mama as he passed around the black eyed peas

Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please

Oh, there's five more acres in the lower forty I gotta plow

And mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe anyhow

Seems like nothing ever comes to no good on Choctaw Ridge

And now Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahassee Bridge

And sister said she'll recollect when she and Tom and Billy Joe

Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County Picture Show

And wasn't I talking to her after church last Sunday night?

I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right

I saw her at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge

And now you tell me, Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahassee Bridge

Mama said to me, child, what happened to your appetite?

I've been cooking all morning and you haven't touched a single bite

The preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today

Said he'd be pleased to have a dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way

He said he saw what kinda looked a lot like you on Choctaw Ridge

And he and Billy Joe was throwing something off the Tallahassee Bridge

A year's come since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe

And sister married Billy Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo

There was a virus going rogue, papa caught it, and died last spring

And now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything

And me, I spend a lot of time picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop them into the mighty water off the Tallahassee Bridge

And drop them into the mighty water off the Tallahassee Bridge